Janet Jackson's A-List Dating History
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Ever since the 1980s, people have been fascinated by Janet Jackson’s love life. After three marriages, and multiple high-profile relationships, Jackson has had decades of romances that fans have been dying to know the details of.
Oftentimes, she and her past rumored spouses keep the speculation going for years. Within the past five years alone, she and a former partner have confirmed their romance, like Matthew McConaughey and Q-Tip.
As we said, she’s also had three marriages and a son Eissa, and all of her marriages were quite private, unlike some of her past relationships. But we’ve gathered all the information we could over her six confirmed romances.
Below, see everything we know about Jackson’s dating history.
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James DeBarge
Janet Jackson and James DeBarge started dating when she was 16 and he was 19, later eloping on Sept 7, 1984, only telling her sister LaToya about it, per NYPost. But their marriage was annulled a year later, in 1985, which she claimed was due to his drug addiction.
Rene Elizondo
Jackson met René Elizondo when he was a backup dancer for her sister, La Toya Jackson in the 1980s, and they became incredibly close. In fact, she told Ebony in 1993 via Closer Weekly, “When I first met him, I was going through so much and I would call him and I would cry on the phone. We were best friends.”
While their romance was an incredibly secret from the public eye, they were married from 1991 to 2000, and per Forbes, Elizondo received $10 million in spousal support.
Q-Tip
Q-Tip and Jackson first met when they worked together on the set of Poetic Justice in 1993, and later collaborated in 1997, so they’ve been long friends. During a chat with Math Hoffa, he admitted that the two dated after she split from her second husband René Elizondo. It’s unknown how long they stayed together, but it was quite short-lived.
Matthew McConaughey
While many think Janet Jackson and Matthew McConaughey had a full relationship in the early 2000s, it was actually a brief fling. Back in 2019, he said 2019 on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen that “We went out and had dinner one night and had dinner. That was sort of it.”
They first met at the 2002 Grammy Awards, and they exchanged numbers after meeting. It’s unclear when this date happened, but it was soon after, and they remained friends for quite some time.
Jermaine Dupri
Jermaine Dupri met Jackson backstage on one of her shows, and were together from 2002 to 2008. He talked about how they showed each other different things, and how he helped her not stay sheltered; on his podcast.
“I took her to Magic City. … I exposed her to a lot of life that I didn’t even know I could expose a person to,” he said. “You think when somebody’s that famous, that rich, they know everything. They’ve seen everything. But it was a lot of world that we was living in here … cultural-wise, that they hadn’t gotten in L.A. That’s where we basically started hitting it off. We were showing each other multiple things. … It was two cool people exchanging energy.”
They reportedly broke up because neither wanted to relocate for the other, per Closer Weekly, but have remained close friends.
Wissam Al Mana
Qatari businessman Wissam Al Mana and Jackson were married from 2010 to 2017: They met at a hotel in Dubai in 2006, but didn’t start dating until 2010 and secretly wed in 2012. Per Hello, they spent $20 million on the ceremony, and flew 500 wedding guests in to Doha, Qatar.
They seemed quite in love, and even welcomed a son named Eissa in Jan 2017. However, they split up that year, and have had a contentious divorce since.
